Robert Scott Lauder

Robert Scott Lauder, (1803 - April 21,1869) was a Scottish mid-Victorian artist who described himself as a "historical painter". He was one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy.

Life and work

Robert Scott Lauder was born at Silvermills House, Edinburgh, on June 25, 1803, the third son of John Lauder of Silvermills (d.1838), Burgess of Edinburgh and proprietor of the tannery at Silvermills, by his wife Helen Tait (d.1850). After attending the Royal High School he went to London, where his eldest brother William was engaged in the family business.

He returned to Edinburgh about 1826 and was elected one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1830. On September 9, 1833 at St.Cuthberts in Edinburgh he married Isabella Ramsay Thomson and they then went abroad, accompanied by his younger artist-brother, James Eckford Lauder. Robert studied for some years in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice and Munich.

He returned to London in 1838 where he lived for several years, where his three children – Isabella, John, and Robert, were baptised at St.Thomas’s Church, Southwark, in 1840, 1841, and 1844. Whilst in London he exhibited at the Royal Academy and competed in the Westminster Hall competition of 1847, sending his "Christ walking on the Sea", which was subsequently purchased by Lady Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

He later removed back to Edinburgh in 1849 where both his sons—Robert Scott Lauder (b.1844), who became a physician, and John Thomson Lauder (1841-1865)—attended the Edinburgh Academy.

Sir Walter Scott's novels provided him with subjects for many of his most successful historical paintings. [Chambers Biographicial Dictionary ISBN 0-550-16041-8] About 1860 he suffered a paralytic stroke and did not practice after 1861. He died at Edinburgh from a bout of bronchitis on April 21, 1869, still paralysed.

Selected paintings

Key works:

*"Scene from The Bride of Lammermoor" (1839)
*"The Trial of Effie Deans" (1840)
*"Meg Merrilies" (1842)
*"Hannah (Bible) presenting Samuel to Eli" (1845)
*"Mother and Child" (1848)
*"Sentinels"
*"Christ Teacheth Humility" (1847)
*"John Gibson Lockhart" (Portrait)
*"Reverend John Thomson of Duddingstone" (Portrait)
*"William Simson, R.S.A." (Portrait)

Other pictures of note are:
*"Italian Goatherds entertaining a brother of the Santissima Trinita" (1843)
*"Ruth "so she gleaned in the field until even"(1845) (see Book of Ruth)
*"The Gow Chrom Reluctantly Conducting the Glee Maiden to a Place of Safety" (1846)
*"Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery"

Other portraits of note are:
*"Sir Archibald Alison", Bt.
*"Thomas Duncan"
*"John Henning"
*"Elizabeth Lauder, Mrs.William Paterson, with her daughter Janet"
*"Henry Lauder" (the artist’s brother) painted c1825-1827.
*"Sir Thomas Dick Lauder"
*"Robert Scott Lauder" (self)
*"John Gibson Lockhart, with Charlotte Scott"
*"David Roberts (painter)" (1840)
*"David Scott"
*"Sir John Steell"
*"Thomas Thomson"

Footnotes

References

* "Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters and Engravers", edited by George C.Williamson, London 1927, (5 volumes).
* "The Edinburgh Academy Register", Edinburgh, 1914.
* Testaments of John Lauder of Silvermills & Helen Tait, in the National Archives of Scotland.

External links

* [http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/?initial=L&artistId=3840&artistName=Robert%20Scott%20Lauder&submit=1 Works in the National Galleries of Scotland]